Ellington

Life is "10 percent what happens and 90 percent how you deal with it," University of Washington cross country and track coach Greg Metcalf constantly tells his runners.

Jon Hickey has been listening.

It was just a little lump on his scalp -- nothing serious, he thought. His parents weren't too concerned, but Hickey wanted it removed anyway -- for cosmetic reasons more than anything.

"The doctor was like, 'Well, it's probably just a cyst,'" he recalled from the spring of 2004.

After the routine operation to remove the growth, he could relax.

But not for long.

The next week Hickey received a phone call from the doctor asking him to come into the office. There, he was told that the lump that was removed was in fact a rare form of skin cancer called dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans. Not only was the locally aggressive cancer attacking his skin, but the muscle tissue around it was being affected as well.

If you thought hearing the news that you have cancer is tough to digest, try having an entire month before surgery to ponder the possibilities.

"Every second I was just thinking, 'I have cancer,'" says Hickey regarding that long month before surgery. "Just saying it to myself over and over. Somewhat shocked ... I was 20 years old when it happened. It was the last thing I thought would happen."

Now 21 and more than a year removed from the cancer, the Richland, Wash. native tries to forget the surgery that he had to go through.

But it's not that easy, especially with a cylindrical scar about the size of the top of a soda can on his forehead.

"A lot of times when I see it I think of the painful aspects of it," he says.

Called Mohs Surgery, the procedure lasted 10 hours, and Hickey was awake for the whole thing on that May 19 day. Surgeons would cut out a piece of skin on his scalp all the way to the bone, then look at the sample under a microscope to determine if there was cancer on the edges.

Hickey outlasted five rounds of that painful process. Before each round he was injected with a local anesthetic to ease the pain ? or at least try to. His head was constantly wrapped and unwrapped. He was also repeatedly being stitched and unstitched.

"I just related it to a track race -- one more lap, one more lap," says the senior political science major. "I really think being an endurance athlete I was able to push through that sort of pain. By the end of it, the numbing stuff just pretty much stopped working. It hurt.

"I remember looking in the mirror and I was like, 'I look like the Incredible Hulk,'" he says.

Hickey is able to let out a laugh when remembering how tough of a procedure he endured. Even during the operation, he was in good spirits.

"The doctors were great," Hickey says. "They kept me laughing. They were cutting into me, but I was still laughing. I was like, 'Are you sure you can't put me to sleep?'"

"I did get to talk to Jon on the phone during his surgery," recalls his girlfriend Katie Claghorn, a Gonzaga law student. "I could tell that he was tired and in pain, but instead of complaining, he cheerfully told me about how wonderful his doctors were and how it was weird to have a hole in his head."

With a full recovery already behind him and the chances of the cancer returning slim, Hickey now runs on the UW cross country and track teams with conviction.

"One of my strengths is being able to go out and run with the big guys and not be afraid to run up in the front," he says. "I think this year I'm going to put together a great season. I'm really confident. I'm looking to break 14 (minutes) in the 5K and hoping to get a ticket to nationals."

Goals that are reachable, especially with his attitude.

"Jon's competitive nature definitely helped him get through his illness," Claghorn says. "He definitely had the attitude of an athlete ---- acted with determination and didn't complain. He deals with other challenges in the same way. He has a goal and doesn't consider failure an option."

But even with that determination, those goals won't be accomplished without an ice bath the night before a race and an oatmeal raisin Powerbar two hours before the gun goes off (or so his superstition says).

Hickey earned second-team Academic All Pac-10 honors in the fall of the 2004-05 season (a 3.65 GPA will do that) and placed third overall at the Sundodger Invite last year.

"He has had more than his fair share of setbacks, but he still finds a way to run well every season," says teammate and friend senior Andy Fader. "He is a gamer."

Guys like Fader and other UW teammates gave Hickey strength during tough times.

"The best part about this team is just the people," Hickey said. "The people on the team are amazing. They're all great people. They've helped me get through a lot."

It was a terribly difficult month before the surgery for Hickey. He went to class, to practice. He was doing his best to carry on with his life as a collegiate athlete. His mind was racing faster than he was, however.

"I didn't sleep. All I was thinking about was this (cancer), and I was really stressed out," he says.

He did find some extra motivation, though.

"I decided during that month, where I had things going through my head, that I wanted to do something to try to give back, because I pretty much decided I was going to make it through this," says Hickey, who aspires to be a lawyer, or maybe even a state representative, one day. "And one, big inspiring figure was (seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor) Lance Armstrong."

Was it his attitude that got him through the cancer? Was it his competitive nature? Was it Armstrong?

"The qualities Jon admires in Lance are the same qualities that I see in him," Claghorn says. "Not only are they both endurance athletes and cancer survivors, they both have a zest for life and a fierce competitive edge that would make you think that they were invincible."

Once recovered from surgery, Hickey made good to his word and found a way to give back.

He volunteers at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and founded the Tri-Cities Race Against Cancer, a 5K race in Kennewick, Wash. In the two years that it has taken place, the race has raised more than $6,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Hickey has aspirations to bring the race to Seattle as well, with Magnuson Park as a potential site.

"I have a respect for life," he says about surviving cancer. "I'm so much more relaxed about things in life. I think my life's a lot better now. It's kinda twisted, but it's helped develop me as a person. I think I'm actually better for it."

His mother Eva would agree.

"Jon is not only a stronger person, but he is a much more mature person," she says. "I think he understands himself better and will be able to make good choices in his life."

Life threw a hurdle on Jon Hickey's track. And he leaped right over it.